Some Kind of Wonderful (sequel to Give Me the Greenlight, Mr. Clifford)

Ch 8 - In Bed

It was the day before my birthday, otherwise known to Ryder and me as my Birthday Eve. That's when the two of us always had our own special celebrations, the day before our birthdays. This was something we made up when we were little and it became a tradition. We figured since there was a Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, why shouldn't there be a Birthday Eve?

Instead of buying each other gifts, the birthday boy, or girl, got to pick whatever they wanted to do for the entire day, and the other person had to participate, no matter what. Granted, we never really chose anything out of the ordinary. But it was still fun getting to be the boss for a day. That day, however, I did choose something a little unexpected.

"You're kidding, right?" Ryder asked incredulously when I told him what my plan was.

"I'm dead serious, Ry. I'm pretty sure I'm the only person living in Sydney who doesn't know how to surf. You can teach me. It can't be as hard as playing a guitar." I laughed way too hard at myself.

"Jesus. Okay, it's your day. I can't object." He mumbled something else to himself, most likely cursing me, but I didn't ask him to repeat it.

I had all the equipment for surfing, but had just never gotten around to using it. Ryder was pretty good, of course. I had spent a good portion of my life watching him and his friends surfing. I didn't know why I was all of a sudden interested in doing so myself. I wasn't even that great of a swimmer. But I wanted to do something different for that Birthday Eve, and it was the first thing that popped into my head.

It ended up being a perfect day for such an activity. The weather was amazing and the water wasn't rough. The beach wasn't too crowded because we went to a private area where Uncle Cal's beach house was. It was his secondary house in Sydney, which he used mostly for parties before he moved to the U.S. When he moved, he told us we could use it any time we wanted, as long as we were responsible - which was ironic, given that he was so irresponsible himself. Up till now we had actually never taken him up on that offer.

We arrived at the beach house at lunch time. We had stopped to get a pizza on the way, so we ate that first, then started to get ready. I already had my bathing suit on under my sundress. All I had to do was take the dress off. No biggie. I'd done that in front of Ryder numerous times on our visits to the beach. But I had suddenly become self-conscious. I started to head to the bathroom with my wetsuit.

"Um, you're going to need help with that. I know you've never put one on before," Ryder called after me.

"Oh," I said, turning around just in time to see Ryder take his shirt off. Do not stare, Katesby! Do. Not. Stare. I reminded myself. But it was too late.

"Dude, you've seen me shirtless before," he smirked.

"But it's so damn distracting. Ugh." I had been caught. There was no sense in lying about it.

Ryder just chuckled, and said, "Okay, off with the dress." Then of course he had to bite his lip to camouflage a smile.

Okay. Two can play this game, I thought to myself. I deliberately didn't break eye contact with him while I took my time getting out of the dress, daring him to look away. Eventually the lip bite could no longer hide his smile. He was full on cheesing when I wadded up the dress and threw it on the couch behind him. When I did so, he took a step towards me. He was so close I could feel his breath. Eventually, my eyes inadvertently traveled to his lips, thus ending the stare down.

"You cheated," I accused.

"No I didn't! How can one cheat in a stare down contest?" he questioned.

"You got too close to me."

"Says the girl who's been attached to my hip the past fourteen years."